“I'm from the streets where the ‘hood could swallow a man,” rap mogul Jay Z sang in the song “U Don’t Know” to open his concert Wednesday at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center.

And though clearly Jay Z has left the ‘hood – Forbes’ magazine’s recent rating of him and wife Beyonce atop the music industry insider list and a Grammy Award on Sunday for collaborating with Justin Timberlake attest to that --the ‘hood has not left him.

And that’s why his show was such a success.

Jay Z at Wells Fargo CenterPhotos by Brian Hineline/Special to The Morning Call

In a concert that lasted an hour and 40 minutes (including a 10-minute mid-show set by producer Timbaland and Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill while Jay Z was offstage, and 15 minutes of encore audience shout-outs), Hova showed he is a man among the field of boys in rap today.

That all-important street cred came from his roots – which he celebrated, reaching back to his classic 1996 debut album “Reasonable Doubt” for the song “Dead Presidents II” – but mostly from his delivery. Authentic, authoritative and knowing, he put most rappers today to shame.

Yes, the show was a big production as rap concerts go, but Jay Z remained authentic: alone on stage (his often-rocking four-man band behind and above him), dressed in a black T-shirt and pants, spittin’ rhymes.

That was never more evident than on “On to the Next One,” on which his rapping was powerful and old school – the voice of a knowledgeable street – gritting his teeth as he sang.

In a set that spanned nearly 30 songs, Jay Z played a half-dozen from his newest disc, “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” including the aforementioned Grammy-winning title track, on which he sang so mean and street, swinging his head side-to-side and bouncing, that you almost didn’t miss Timberlake. Almost.

But Jay Z wasn’t only serious. On “Beach is Better,” he playfully waited for the audience to sing the lyrics “or Beyonce,” and later even did a short version of Beyonce’s “Drunk in Love,” on which he’s featured, duetting with her disembodied voice before breaking into laughter on his rap.

But he was far better when he was more serious. His hit “99 Problems” absolutely kicked out of the gates, and when he sang it, you believed him. On the new disc’s “Picasso Baby,” his lyrics were pure rap braggadocio, but you believed him then, too.

He wagged his finger at the crowd on “Can I Live,” and on a great version of “Big Pimpin’,” danced as he fast-rapped to its light music.

He wound down the main set with another fast rap, the cleansed-lyric “Jigga What, Jigga Who (Originator 99)” and a particularly good “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” played with a burning back beat and sinewy melody.

Then Jay Z told the crowd he was going to “go off script,” and told them – expecting he would be fined by fire marshals -- to dance in the aisles and stand of their chairs, and security to stand down while they did. “You do what you want,” he told them. “It’s your seat -- you paid for it.”

That’s when he played “N----- In Paris,” his 2011 collaboration with Kanye West, that was the best song of the night, full of life and energy that the crowd shared by doing exactly what Jay Z told them they could. He ended the main set with the new “Tom Ford,” a burning, smoking “Clique” and “Run This Town.”

His encore started, appropriately, with “Encore,” then ”Empire State of Mind,” a heartfelt paean to his hometown, and “Izzo (H.O.V.A),” which still had an amazing amount of energy.

It wasn’t a perfect show. Unlike in Jay Z’s wonderful Legends of Summer tour with Timberlake last summer, there were moments in Wednesday’s show that lagged. The audience interaction part of the encore, which dragged it to 30 minutes, went on far too long.

And, in true rapper fashion, Hova didn’t take the stage until an excruciating hour and 40 minutes past the announced start time. That wait was equal to the entire show’s length.

But when Jay Z closed with “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem),” which segued into “Young Forever,” which he dedicated to Nelson Mandela, those moments were forgotten. With the auditorium full of crowd-held lighters and cell phones, he had the audience sing a cappella to close.

“Ideas are forever!” he said. And Jay Z’s are still strong after nearly 20 years.

JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.